{"id":2891,"date":"2025-02-19T09:15:49","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T22:15:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/mastering-the-standing-leg-raise-exercise.html"},"modified":"2025-02-19T09:15:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T22:15:49","slug":"mastering-the-standing-leg-raise-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/mastering-the-standing-leg-raise-exercise.html","title":{"rendered":"Mastering the Standing Leg Raise Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The standing leg raise tends to get overshadowed by showier exercises like hip thrusts\u00a0and\u00a0burpees \u2014 but if you want to build up a strong lower half, it\u2019s time to familiarize yourself with this simple but effective move.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s easy to do standing leg raises practically anywhere \u2014 so even if you can\u2019t make it to the gym, you can still knock out a few sets right in your living room.<\/p>\n<h2>Standing Leg Raise Exercise: Step-by-Step Instructions<\/h2>\n<p><iframe title=\"How to Do a Standing Leg Raise | Openfit\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hB2n_pPw_aY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Stand tall with your hands on your hips and feet shoulder-width apart.<\/li>\n<li>Shifting your weight to your right foot, slowly lift your left leg straight out in front of you, as high as you comfortably can. Keep your core tight and your left foot flexed; don\u2019t bend your knees, and avoid rotating your ankle outward.<\/li>\n<li>Lower your foot back down to starting position. That\u2019s one rep. Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What Muscles Do Standing Leg Raises Work?<\/h2>\n<p>The standing leg raise exercise targets and strengthens your\u00a0hip muscles. Specifically, the adductors along your inner thighs and the gluteus medius\u00a0on the upper, outer edge of your pelvis.<\/p>\n<p>Because you use your hip muscles for walking, running, and balancing, this exercise is especially helpful for keeping you stable during cardio and strength moves like sprints, squats, and lunges.<\/p>\n<p>Standing leg raises also work the rectus abdominis muscle (a.k.a. your \u201csix-pack\u201d). The cross-body action in the side variation lights up the obliques (the muscles on the sides of your waist).<\/p>\n<h2>Standing Leg Side Raise Variation<\/h2>\n<p>One variation of the standing leg raise incorporates hip abduction, or moving the leg away from the body. Here\u2019s how to do it.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Stand tall with your hands on your hips. Cross one ankle over the other so your top foot hovers over or lightly touches the floor.<\/li>\n<li>With your foot flexed, lift your top leg out to the side as high as you can without bending your knee. You should feel a slight squeeze in your working hip. Be careful not to rotate your foot outward as you lift \u2014 your foot should stay parallel to the floor with toes facing forward throughout the move.<\/li>\n<li>Lower your foot back down to starting position. That\u2019s one rep. Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Ready to add the standing leg raise to your next\u00a0leg workout? Hannah Viva, NASM-certified personal trainer with Fit Body Boot Camp recommends sticking to a regular tempo so you can complete every rep with control and consistency.<\/p>\n<p>And if you want to make standing leg raises more challenging, add a resistance loop or ankle weight around your ankles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The standing leg raise tends to get overshadowed by showier exercises like hip thrusts\u00a0and\u00a0burpees \u2014 but if you want to build up a strong lower half, it\u2019s time to familiarize yourself with this simple but effective move. It\u2019s easy to do standing leg raises practically anywhere \u2014 so even if you can\u2019t make it to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fitness"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2894,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions\/2894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}